Cosmosophy

11 lectures, Dornach, September 23 – October 16, 1921 (CW 207)

The year 1921 was a time of intense activity for Rudolf Steiner. Three years after World War 1, with social ideals and democracy trying to make their way into the Weimar Republic and the disastrous financial collapse just around the corner, Steiner concentrated his efforts on cultural renewal in economics, education, the arts, medicine, theology, and the sciences. Two clinics were opened; two publications began. He lectured in Germany, Switzerland, Amsterdam, The Hague, and Oslo, often giving two or three and occasionally four lectures a day. Anthroposophy was becoming more known with all this activity, but opposition was also growing stronger. Steiner said:

“The modern materialistic worldview is a product of fear and anxiety. This fear lives on in the outer actions of human beings, in the social structure, in the course of history.... Why did people become materialists? Why would people admit only the outer―what is given in material existence? People were afraid to descend into the depths of the human being.”

The mind–body split is the result of this fear to penetrate the inner human being; our lack of courage rebounds on society, producing the terrible conditions of modern civilization. Healing will come only when we summon the courage to penetrate the hidden mysteries of the inner human being.

In the Anthroposophical Society itself, Steiner sought to awaken the local groups from their comfortable complacency. Cosmosophy, volume 1, is the first part of a two lecture courses Steiner gave in Dornach in the fall of 1921 to members of the Society on Anthroposophy as cosmosophy―wisdom of the human being as cosmic wisdom. The eleven lectures, which are also part of a wider course of lectures during 1920 to 1921 (CW 201–209), reveal deep mysteries of the human being in relation to the cosmos.

Cosmosophy: Cosmic Influences on the Human Being (vol. 1) is a translation from German of Der Mensch in Zusammenhang mit dem Kosmos 7: Anthroposophie als Kosmosophie - Erster Teil: Wesenszüge des Menschen im irdischen und kosmischen Bereich (GA 207).

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner's multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.